The American Illustrated Medical Dictionary by Dorland classifies burns of the skin as follows: "Burns of the first degree show redness, of the second degree, vesication, of the third degree, necrosis through the entire skin, and fourth degree, more or less charring."
In the typical metalwork or welding shop situation, the shop worker may from time to time be exposed unknowingly by direct contact of his person (e.g., the gloved or ungloved hand) with an extremely hot metal workpiece or a torch or the like. In such a case, the worker is burned, and he feels the burn pain immediately. However, and especially without first aid, he can only guess at the impending acute tissue damage to the burn site. If the burn site is left untreated, the pain may abate and the damage may amount to no more than temporary redness of the skin. However, if severe enough, the exposure may within hours result not only in redness and chronic pain, but sequelae such as vesication or blistering with exudation, and even breakage of the skin. It is common knowledge that, as a temporary measure, the discomfort and inflammation of such a burn can be alleviated by exposing the burn site to cold running water or an ice pack or cold compress.
The current treatment of choice for such burns is the application of an antiburn dermatological composition, usually in aerosol, liquid or ointment form which may include a "caine" type topical anesthetic or a topical antiseptic or germicide such as povidone-iodine. Some antiburn preparations also contain an alcohol, partly for its solvent action for organic solute components in the composition (see, for example, the patent to Lowdermill, U.S. Pat. No. 75,776). However, alcohol should not be applied to broken skin since irritation and burning can result.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method of avoiding or minimizing burn damage to the skin.
It is also an object to provide a method of treating burns in the work place which method will give immediate and at least temporary relief from pain and may avoid the serious tissue damage such as necrosis, vesication, breakage of the skin, or infection that might ensue if the burn site were left untreated.
These and other objects and advantages will be seen from the following description.
The invention in one preferred aspect concerns a method of avoiding or minimizing inflammatory sequelae to a painful freshly burned epidermal skin site. The method comprises in any suitable way applying to the surface of the skin site promptly before the appearance of overt inflammation, an anti-inflammatory composition, preferably to prevent contact of air with the skin site and preferably, to allow for transdermal absorption, as a covering layer or embrocation. The composition is in homogeneous non-alcoholic aqueous solution form, consisting essentially of distilled hamamelis water, magnesium sulfate, and cupric sulfate. If necessary from time to time, the composition or covering layer is replenished to allow for transdermal absorption of the composition at the site. Application is continued for a period sufficient to achieve local relief of inflammatory symptoms.
The composition can be applied in aerosol or liquid form, or in a preferred embodiment it can be applied by immersing or bathing the skin site in a quantity of the liquid composition. For the preparation of the composition, the hamamelis water, magnesium sulfate and cupric sulfate are mixed in suitable proportion which preferably is in parts by weight 73-92, 3-12, and 5-15, respectively. The hamamelis water preferably conforms in its preparation, e.g., to the aqueous phase (preferably 50% to full strength thereof) of the distillate "Hamamelis Water N.F." described in The Dispensatory of the United States of America, page 633, 25th Edition. It preferably contains a self-sterilizing agent such as methylparaben U.S.P. 0.1%. The magnesium sulfate preferably is the heptahydrate. The cupric sulfate preferably is the pentahydrate.